The 20th century saw two transitions: from farming to manufacturing, then to “knowledge work”, and Pink now projects the next transition as one to “right brain” work: “conceptual work”.

But these transitions are very dissimilar with respect to who can participate. Any farm worker could move to the factory, but some factory workers cannot become knowledge workers, and still fewer knowledge workers can become “conceptual workers”.

Result: many unemployed or under-employed people left behind, leading to a fast growing inequality of income which will not be eliminated by any amount of education or retraining. This elephant in the room needs to be examined at PopTech, even though it dampens the mood of techno-euphoria that makes PopTech so attractive.